The Fever flourished simply earlier than the final CBA expired, however a number of WNBA squads within the East succeeded at stockpiling expertise.
A sure hullabaloo has arisen about WNBA signatures in current weeks. Sure gamers on the league ledgers maybe marvel what all of the fuss was about.
With the framework of a brand new collective bargaining settlement in place, simply in time for the landmark thirtieth season to start with out interruption, the WNBA is about to embark on a transactional frenzy: with the prior CBA set to run out, many gamers both signed one-year offers final season or had their long-term contracts’ expirations coincide with the brand new one’s arrival.
A handful of gamers, nonetheless, will watch the chaos as spectators, their standing assured largely by rookie contracts that preserve them aboard for 3 or 4 years. With that in thoughts, Ballislife opts to rank the WNBA rosters constructed amidst the calm earlier than the storm, going by convention. We start with the six assembled out east …
(Observe: growth groups Portland Fireplace and Toronto Tempo will clearly be exempt from these lists)
1. Indiana Fever
Aliyah BostonCaitlin ClarkMakayla Timpson
The basketball goddesses smiled upon the Fever within the remaining years of the prior CBA, granting them two lottery wins that yielded two prime abilities that wasted no time establishing themselves as future faces of the league and maybe ladies’s basketball as an entire.
Their early breakouts may power them to place collectively a monetary puzzle in the case of figuring their incoming supermax offers over the next two offseasons (each are eligible as earlier All-WNBA entrants), however, offered they construct on final 12 months’s Caitlin Clark-less run to the ultimate 4 this season, there are actually worse issues to have.
Additionally on board is Timpson, a current second-round choose who solid a task for herself with final 12 months’s group. High quality over amount is the secret for the Fever on this case, and can make them one of many two groups to observe over the subsequent seven months.
2. Washington Mystics
Georgia AmooreSonia CitronKiki IriafenLucy OlsenJacy Sheldon
There is not any denying that the Mystics are nonetheless a piece in progress, however Jamila Wideman spent her first season as common supervisor stockpiling, permitting her group to subject a relative beginning 5 if issues received really dire.
Such transactions have been headlined by her wheeling and dealing on the 2025 draft, which allowed her to flee from New York with half of the highest six picks, together with All-Stars Citron and Iriafen.
Accidents sidelined Amoore for her total rookie season, nevertheless it’s clear that the Mystics nonetheless have excessive hopes for her potential. Olsen arrived within the second spherical whereas Sheldon was acquired for Aaliyah Edwards on the 2025 commerce deadline, however appeared in solely two video games on account of an ankle damage.
Citron and Iriafen already make the Washington leftovers sizzling sufficient. The potential stored with them permits them to lock in loftier objectives in 12 months two of the Wideman/Sydney Johnson period.
3. Connecticut Solar
Aaliyah EdwardsLeïla LacanRayah MarshallAneesah MorrowSaniya Rivers
It is exhausting to completely analyze the Solar’s future on the ground with out readability on precisely which flooring that might be (Uncasville? Boston? Houston?). Wherever they play, that locale is in for a stable exhibiting of youth in revolt after 12 months considered one of Morgan Tuck’s oversight as common supervisor.
Whereas the Mystics dominated the primary half of the premier components of the final draft, Connecticut dealt with the latter portion, touchdown Morrow and Rivers with back-to-back selections. The incoming duo made a reputation for themselves in the course of the Connecticut rebuild, whereas Lacan, a 2024 first-rounder who made her debut after spending the prior 12 months at Olympic prep in Paris, proved to be a formidable depth star. In-season, Tuck and Co. took a waiver on Edwards, who has some welcome stability after a profitable Unequalled reprisal.
With Lacan’s de facto suspension of her 2024 deal, the Solar’s solar is brilliant on the street forward: whereas Edwards will most likely decide out for a bigger deal caused by a rising wage cap, Lacan, Marshall, Morrow, and Rivers are all signed on by way of at the very least 2028. Credit score to Connecticut for determining the who. Now the query of the place takes middle stage.
4. New York Liberty
Leonie FiebichNyara Sabally
Having made large swings on the veteran fronts of their current run of prosperity (and sitting considerably fairly with implied commitments from a few of these headliners), the Liberty’s youth cupboards are considerably sparse, particularly after buying and selling their 2026-27 first-rounders for Natasha Cloud. Even when they wind up shedding some veteran names, a pair bits of championship panache nonetheless linger on the Liberty roster.
It did, nonetheless, strike worldwide gold within the type of Fiebich, who leaped into the beginning lineup in the course of the 2024 title run and established herself as a vital two-way star after quietly coming over in a cost-cutting commerce simply earlier than the well-known splurge of winter 2023. Additionally on board is fellow German Sabally, who just lately had her fourth-year possibility exercised.
Accidents have eaten away at Sabally’s alternative to satisfy her fifth spherical potential however her breakout efficiency within the clincher to the Liberty’s aforementioned championship makes her an enduring metropolitan heroine on the very least.
5. Chicago Sky
Kamilla CardosoAngel ReeseHailey Van LithMaddy Westbeld
On paper, the Sky boasts a comparatively packed group on its present ledgers. But it surely appears like the most effective statements Chicago could make could be of the on-floor selection, particularly after the turmoil of final season.
Questions pepper the longer term however the Sky can have at the very least yet one more 12 months to showcase the Cardoso-Reese tandem. Each can nonetheless decide out for brand new offers with new fourth-year choices in 2027 not picked up however Reese’s more moderen Windy Metropolis ideas hinted that she could be involved in a change within the close to future (although issues have since been quiet on the Midwestern entrance).
It is also seemingly too early to make any judgments on Van Lith and Westbeld, each of whom struggled to search out lasting roles within the Chicago rotation (although the latter took benefit of some late entries because the Sky performed out the stretch). Additional potential lingers in Ajša Sivka, the tenth total choose in final 12 months’s draft who performed in Spain earlier than her projected WNBA debut this time round.
Te-Hina Paopao (6/15/25) pic.twitter.com/3nAIjl9jqA
— @balapattyszn (@balapattyvids) June 15, 2025
6. Atlanta Dream
Te-Hina PaopaoTaylor Thierry
A lot has transpired for the reason that Dream positioned third on the final WNBA leaderboard (and first within the East, even when convention placement is usually irrelevant) that it is easy to neglect the comparatively large swings they took to get there. Such transactions included signing Brittney Griner, waiving current main alternative Laeticia Amihere and Haley Jones, and buying and selling what grew to become final 12 months’s sixth total choose for the (wanted) companies of Allisha Grey.
That leaves them with loads to do as soon as the free company frenzy ideas off, although potential backcourt absences could possibly be offset by the burgeoning emergence of Paopao, who left her mark on the 3-point line when Nyadiew Puoch handled decrease physique points. Thierry caught round as a third-round choose however averaged simply over two minutes a sport. Additional comfort lies in 2024 first-round alternative Nyadiew Puoch, whose skilled endeavors have been staged in her native Australia.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
